Neighbors Ask To Silence Jets

That`s the answer most residents around Palm Beach International Airport give when asked what should be done to decrease the assault on their ears by low- flying jet aircraft.

``Since 1975, there has been an enormous and almost frightening growth of the airport. It is no longer a local airport, it has grown into a very busy regional airport,`` said attorney Al Cone, one of the earliest and most vocal critics of airport noise and one of the airport`s closest neighbors.

``I like where I live, it`s a beautiful little community,`` Cone said. ``I could live there forever if they would just do something about the noise.``

But living near the airport these days, he said, can be very loud.

So loud, in fact, that at his home in Golfview, a small municipality bounded on two sides by the airport, Cone has installed extensive soundproofing. The soundproofing, including inch-thick window glass, does little to muffle the sound of an older 727 preparing to take off, he said.

``The 727s are the worst,`` Cone said. ``The L-1011 is an enormous improvement, and also a safer airplane.``

``The jet is an entirely different breed of cat than the prop jobs that used to fly out of there when it was Morrison Field,`` Cone said. ``(The airport) has become a cancer as far as noise degradation goes.``

Cone said the current situation evolved from the airport`s earlier days as an Air Force base, which opened during World War II and closed in the mid-1960`s.

Its location and the fact there was relatively little noise proved to be a catalyst to the development of subdivisions close to the field, he said.

``There was not any real impact or degradation of the quality of life like there is now,`` he said.

``Realistically,`` Cone added, ``the airport should have been moved 15 years ago like they have done in many other cities. If it had been moved, that area could have become the showplace of the Southeast. But it wasn`t, so that`s spilled milk.``

Many of the airport`s neighbors rankle at the objections to the curfew and noise-related operating-fee ordinances being raised by leaders in the business and tourism communities.

``The principal people making the most noise don`t give a damn,`` Cone said. ``They are the commercial and hotel people who constitute a very small percentage of the county`s population.``

``It would be inconceivable if the county fails to put the curfew into effect,`` he said. ``There are only a very miniscule number of people served with this thing as it is now.``

But the impact on tourism is one of the most important standards by which the ordinances must be measured, said Hugo Unruh, president of the Economic Council of Palm Beach County.

Because of the popularity of discount airlines such as People Express which specialize in low-cost, odd-hour service, Unruh said the loss of a half-dozen nightly flights to the curfew could cost the county an estimated $140 million a year in lost tourist business.

People Express attorney Robert Cohn estimated in July that the elimination of flights during the curfew hours could cost his airline 30 percent of its business at Palm Beach International.

Prohibiting airlines such as People Express from operating late at night and early in the morning would have nationwide implications, said Walt Ferrari, southern regional vice president of the Air Transport Association of America. That organization is composed of the bulk of commercial airlines in the country, including nearly a dozen which serve Palm Beach.

``Ferrari added, ``. . . an airline is not going to be able to sit at Palm Beach all night long.``

Since airlines do operate nationwide, the real economic effect would be felt throughout the air transportation system, he said.

In addition, because of the schedule changes that would be required, along with the increased operating fees, Ferrari said passengers would end up paying more for airline tickets.

``Everybody talks about cheaper fares, yet they (would) raise the operating cost,`` he said. ``Somebody is going to pay that cost, and it`s the passenger.``

Cone sees the measures as providing an incentive for the airlines to either convert their fleets to quieter airplanes or at least schedule their quietest aircraft for flights into Palm Beach International Airport.

``It`s a means of encouragement to the airlines to consider noise when they schedule their flights,`` he said. ``It can be done. Delta, for instance, has already complied`` by converting its fleet to the latest generation of quieter aircraft.

Both the curfew and the noise-related operating fees, said airport Noise Abatement Officer Jerry Allen, are designed to phase out as more airlines put quieter aircraft in service.

In addition, new takeoff procedures instituted in July have helped ease the burden on the east side of the airport where 80 percent of the noise impact used to occur. But some of that burden was shifted to residents west of the airport where takeoff traffic increased by about 25 percent.

Neighborhoods directly east and west of the airport are enjoying a temporary respite from aircraft noise while the main runways are closed for construction, but that respite is scheduled to end in November.

Of the 288 daily commercial flights, only six leave Palm Beach during the proposed curfew hours, Allen said: three People Express flights to Newark, N.J., and three Eastern Airlines flights that stop en route to Fort Lauderdale.

But even after the airport`s entire noise abatement package is put into operation, and if the two ordinances survive the court challenge anticipated from the airlines, Cone said the noise problem won`t be over.

``It`s a beginning,`` he said. ``But it is just something that will bridge the gap until quieter aircraft are used by all airlines.``